Interviewing with the winner of “The Golden Bell Challenge” contest
In the education field, Vietnamese Teacher’s Day is a wonderful occasion to honor and give heartfelt gratitude to teachers for all they do. To celebrate this special day, Indochina Group launched “The Golden Bell Challenge” with the goal of creating a positive and vibrant atmosphere, as well as providing bonding opportunities for WASS and PennSchool teachers.
After a thrilling school-level qualifying round and final round, Ms. Ho Thi Thanh Thao, from the 43 Nguyen Thong campus (WASS), skillfully became the winner of this year’s contest.
In this 9th issue of Indochina Group Connection, we get a chance to read about Ms. Thanh Thao’s experience winning “The Golden Bell Challenge” contest, and working at WASS.
1. How do you feel about being the winner of the contest?
The final round was exciting because, one by one, the contestants stopped playing, leaving only me and one other person on the mat. I felt both excited and nervous, but my colleagues’ enthusiastic support helped me to calm down and reach the final questions of the contest.
When the Organizing Committee announced the answer, I was extremely happy and broke down with emotion because that was the answer I had given. This victory was really the best present I could have gotten for Vietnamese Teacher’s Day and for my own birthday this school year.
2. Experiencing “The Golden Bell Challenge” contest, which question did you find the most difficult (or most impressive)?
Through each round, I found all the questions to be interesting, but I was most impressed with the question on how to handle situations when encountering child abuse. Because, in my opinion, the majority of questions in the contest were more related to the Group and curriculum information than such professional, and ethical questions. This made me realize that Indochina Group is not only a great place to learn and get a high quality education, but also a place where love can be shared with the next generation. Teachers are also friends and relatives of students, we will always accompany them every step of the way, true to the spirit of “Education in Love”.
3. If you could use 3 words to describe the contest, which 3 words would you choose and why?
The three words that come to mind right away are:
– Thrilling: Because the time given to candidates to think, select information and give answers is only 20 seconds. I have to concentrate as much as possible to understand the question, memorize the options and select the correct answer.
– Challenging: In this contest, the questions become more and more difficult and diverse later on. This meant we all had to be calm and concentrate fully.
– Unifying: Through this year’s contest, the solidarity of the members of the Group was clear to see. Everyone in the room was cheering for the contestants, the Advisory Board and my colleagues throughout the contest.
4. How did you prepare before participating in the Contest?
The contest was held at the same time as many other school activities, so my time for this contest was also very limited, but I was very lucky because I received a lot of encouragement from fellow teachers. Before the contest, we all got together to discuss what we knew about the Group, this definitely helped us in answering the questions.
5. How do you feel when the Group organizes contests like this for Teachers and Staff?
Myself, and many other Teachers and Staff in the Group are very interested in competitions similar to “The Golden Bell Challenge”. I can see how much time and effort the school and organizing committee put into events and contests like this one. So, we, the contestants and teams, have prepared and polished our work to fit the spirit of each contest. Through such processes, each individual can draw a lot of valuable lessons and learn more useful information. Also, these contests greatly enhance our team spirit and solidarity.
6. Do you have any special wishes or expectations for future activities at the Group?
I hope “The Golden Bell Challenge” contest will continue to run. It would also be great to see the topic of the questions expanded more to include social knowledge, information, and the situation in Vietnam and around the world. I also hope that the Group can set up more sports competitions between campuses for Teachers and Staff, since people like sports so much.
